Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-03-25
To be continued.
BLOWN OUT TO SEA.

yesterday morning from the Nsnaimo
coal-felds, two men were brought into
port who tell strange story, says the
San Francisco Chronicle. Their names
arsJ. Church and B. Harmon. On the
Sd inst. they were the joint owners of a
small hat-bottomed scow steamer doing a
light freight business around Historian
and the other small towns in its neigh
borhood. They had formerly owned a
sloop, in which they had conducted the
same class of business, and had only
reached the dignity of a steamer after
years of hard and careful work. Both
are still young men. Church, who acted
as captain, is 81 years Of age, is married,
| and has two children. Harmon, who acted
as engineer, is only %, and lived at home
with his father. They were steering
their steamer home for dinner on the
Sd, when one of the steam pipes broke.
There was strong northwest wind blow
ing, and before they relied their danger
tho owners of the Dawn found their beat
| drifting out over tho bar.
The broken steampipe was repaired to
the best OF tho mems ability and all that
day they fought hard to get back. The
wind was too strong, however, and away
they went drifting and tUmbling until
the land went out of sight. The watch of
| the lighthouse station saw the poor little
steamer az she passed out over the bar
| and as soon as it could be managed the
United States lighthouse te1der was dis
| patched after the Dawn to bring her
back. The tender steamed out one han
| dred miles but without catching a
| Gimp of the drift, and he returned bear
ing word that the little fst-bottomed
craft had doubtless turned over and TAX
en- her owners with her.
AS soon as church and Harmon realiZ-
| ed the hopelessness of trying to get
| back to Astoria, they turned their atten-
| ton to the pantry. The result was not
very encouraging, as they found that all
their larder contained was part of a loaf
| of bread and a ham bone. With this
they desided to make soup, and off that
| they shrewdly lived until the 9TH inst. On
that day not only did the soup give out,
but every scrap of fuel that could posi-
| bly, be showed into the furnace was ex-
hausted. Then they did begin to des-
| pair, and for that day lay around with
out caring much whether the boat swan
or sank. The next day broke so brightly
however, that their spirits revived, and
| they set to work to attract the attention
of any passing craft. Several were seen
but the Dawn lay SO fiat on the waite:
that she was not distinguished. The
night came and with it drenchiug show
er of rain, some of which they caught
and drank. The 9th. 18th, Sth and 9th
| came and went, and found and left the
| Dawn still tumbling and drifting hope.
lessly about and the two men CROWN g
| weaker.
Their eyes went back into
| their heads, their blackened lips
receded, from their gums and their
| bones stuck out till every ore could be
felt and counted. On the 10th they
| dragged out the mattresses from their
bunks and began to chew on them. On
this and what little water they caught
from the clouds they managed to subsist
all through the 18th and part way through
| the 18th. Then it was that Capt. Butler
of the Empire, saw what he thought to
oe q buoy adrift and put the steamer,
head about until he discovered that the
| buoy was a little, tunbling, drifting
steamer. Running the Empire alongside
he found that the castaway contained two
| staring eyed skeletons, and when the
skeletons were lifted on board it was
found that they we're still alive. Very
|
soon able to tell their story. The Dawn
was taken in tow by the Empire, and
when Coos bay was reached Capt. Butler
provisioned her and prepared to take his
| little consort in.
He was warned, however, from attempt
ing this by brave member of the life
saving station, who came out single hand
ed to tell Capt. Butler that there were no
| tugs within, and that the sea was break
| ing dangerously. On this Capt. Butler
| determined to proceed to San Francisco
with the Dawn in tow, but that night the
| hawser parted and the Dawn disappeared.
| Church and Harmon arrived yesterday
morning as has been stated, and to-mor-
row will be given free passage back home
on the State of California.
Mention of two things should not be
omitted-tirst, that Church's first duty on
landing here was to telegraph to his wife
| that she was not widow; and, second,
that the crew of the Empire, when paid
off yesterday, made up generous purse
| for the relief of the owners of the late
| Dawn.